Vehicle seat control apparatus and method

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2023-0004113 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jan. 11, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle seat control apparatus and a vehicle seat control method.

Generally, in the vehicle, seats are provided so that occupants may sit in front and back including a driver's seat.

The seat is configured to be movable back and forth along the length direction of the vehicle to keep the occupant's comfortable state depending on the physical condition.

Recently, as autonomous vehicles are developed, seats are automatically movable to various positions. However, when the positions of the plurality of seats are adjusted in the vehicle, there may be interference between occupants or collisions between the occupants and objects depending on the movement of the seats.

In the related art, seat position information for every seat is shared through a vehicle network (CAN communication) to check whether there is interference between seats. For example, when a second-row seat is in an interference position before performing a folding function of a third-row seat, interference information between seats may be transmitted through the CAN communication.

However, in the related art, the interference between seats is determined for only a specific seat or only when a specific function is performed.

Data required to implement a logic to determine the interference between seats is transmitted or received through the CAN communication so that when an error occurs in the CAN network, there is a possibility of an erroneous operation.

Further, due to a structure in which a single controller is applied to every seat, it is difficult to apply a seat integrated controller which will be prepared in the future.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in an effort to provide a vehicle seat control apparatus and a vehicle seat control method which enable integrated control of all the seats using a coordinate logic which coordinates a range of a vehicle interior or a seat frame and prevent or avoid the interference between seats.

In order to achieve the above-described objects, according to an aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle seat control apparatus includes: a coordinate calculating unit which calculates an interference coordinate based on a current position of a motion seat, among a plurality of seats in a vehicle; a position determining unit which determines whether the motion seat and the other seat interfere with each other using the interference coordinate; and a controller which selectively controls the motion seat or the other seat depending on whether the motion seat and the other seat interfere with each other.

The interference coordinate includes a cushion interference coordinate range and a backrest interference coordinate range of the motion seat.

The coordinate calculating unit sets a reference cushion coordinate range based on a cushion upper end of the motion seat and sets a range extended by at least one space in an x-axis direction and a y-axis direction based on the reference cushion coordinate range as the cushion interference coordinate range.

When the backrest of the motion seat is in a correct position state without an inclination, the coordinate calculating unit sets a reference backrest coordinate range based on the backrest rear end of the motion seat, and sets a range extended by at least three spaces in the x-axis direction based on the reference backrest coordinate range as the backrest interference coordinate range.

When the backrest of the motion seat is in a reclined state with a predetermined inclination, the coordinate calculating unit sets a reference backrest coordinate range based on the inclination and the size of the backrest, and sets a range extended by at least three spaces in the x-axis direction based on the reference backrest coordinate range as the backrest interference coordinate range.

The vehicle seat control apparatus further includes a collecting unit which collects a mounting position and size data of the plurality of seats.

The vehicle seat control apparatus further includes a motion sensing unit which senses a manual or automatic motion of the seat.

When it is determined as an interference situation of the motion seat and the other seat, the controller stops the operation of the motion seat and controls a motion of the other seat to move out of the interference coordinate.

In order to achieve the above-described objects, according to another aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle seat control method includes: a coordinate calculating step of calculating an interference coordinate based on a current position of a motion seat, among a plurality of seats in a vehicle, by a coordinate calculating unit; an interference determining step of determining whether the motion seat and the other seat interfere with each other using the interference coordinate, by a position determining unit; and a control step of selectively controlling the motion seat or the other seat depending on whether the motion seat and the other seat interfere with each other, by a controller.

The interference coordinate includes a cushion interference coordinate range and a backrest interference coordinate range of the motion seat.

The coordinate calculating step includes: setting a reference cushion coordinate range based on a cushion upper end of the motion seat and sets a range extended by at least one space in an x-axis direction and a y-axis direction based on the reference cushion coordinate range as the cushion interference coordinate range, by the coordinate calculating unit.

The coordinate calculating step includes: setting a reference backrest coordinate range based on the backrest rear end of the motion seat when the backrest of the motion seat is in a correct position state without an inclination, and setting a range extended by at least three spaces in the x-axis direction based on the reference backrest coordinate range as the backrest interference coordinate range by the coordinate calculating unit.

The coordinate calculating step includes: setting a reference backrest coordinate range based on the inclination and the size of the backrest when the backrest of the motion seat is in a reclined state with a predetermined inclination and setting a range extended by at least three spaces in the x-axis direction based on the reference backrest coordinate range as the backrest interference coordinate range by the coordinate calculating unit.

The vehicle seat control method further includes: prior to the coordinate calculating step, a collecting step of collecting a mounting position and size data of the plurality of seats, by a collecting unit; a coordinating step of coordinating the mounting position and the size data of the plurality of seats, by the coordinate calculating unit; and a current position checking step of checking a current position of the plurality of seats, by the position determining unit.

The vehicle seat control method further includes: after the coordinate calculating step, a motion sensing step of sensing a manual or automatic motion of the seat by the motion sensing unit.

The control step includes: a change control step of when it is determined as an interference situation of the motion seat and the other seat, stopping the operation of the motion seat and controlling a motion of the other seat to move out of the interference coordinate, by the controller.

According to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the vehicle seat control apparatus and the vehicle seat control method enable integrated control of all the seats using a coordinate logic which coordinates a range of a vehicle interior or a seat frame and prevent or avoid the interference between seats.

An architecture in which one high performance electronic control unit (ECU) controls all seats in the vehicle may be implemented.

It is possible to be used as a source technology of a seat interference control logic in the future.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.

It should be understood that the appended drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various features illustrative of the basic principles of the invention. The specific design features of the present invention as disclosed herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes will be determined in part by the particular intended application and use environment.

In the figures, reference numbers refer to the same or equivalent parts of the present invention throughout the several figures of the drawing.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, it should be noted that even though the parts are illustrated in different drawings, it should be understood that like reference numerals refer to like parts of the present invention throughout the several figures of the drawing. Further, hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described. However, it should be understood that the technical spirit of the invention is not restricted or limited to the specific embodiments, but may be changed or modified in various ways by those skilled in the art to be carried out.

is a block diagram related to a vehicle seat control apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to, a vehicle seat control apparatusaccording to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention enables integrated control of all the seats using a coordinate logic which coordinates a range of a vehicle interior or a seat frame and prevent or avoid the interference between seats.

The vehicle seat control apparatusaccording to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention includes a collecting unit, a coordinate calculating unit, a motion sensing unit, a position determining unit, and a controller.

The collecting unitcollects a plurality of seat mounting positions in the vehicle and size data. The plurality of seat mounting positions and size data may be provided when the vehicle is manufactured.

The coordinate calculating unitmay coordinate a plurality of seat mounting positions and size data to store the plurality of seat mounting positions and size data in a software array variable. In one exemplary embodiment, the coordinate calculating unitcoordinates the plurality of seat mounting positions and size data based on a coordinate reduction ratio of 1:10. The coordinate calculating unitsets a cushion front end of a vehicle front seat among the plurality of seats to an x-axis reference point (0 point). The coordinate calculating unitsets an end of a headrest of the vehicle front seat to a y-axis reference point (0 point).

The coordinate calculating unitcalculates an interference coordinate based on a current position of the seat. The calculating of interference coordinate will be described in detail with reference to.

The motion sensing unitsenses a manual or automatic motion of a seat by the user. The motion sensing unitsenses a motion by the change in a sensing value of a hole sensor mounted in the seat.

The position determining unitmay determine a current position of the seat based on the sensing value of the hole sensor. The position determining unitsearches for a surrounding coordinate of a motion seat to determine whether the motion seat interferes with the other seat.

When it is determined that the motion seat interferes with the other seat, the controllermay stop the operation of the motion seat. At this time, the controllercontrols a motion of the other seat to move out of the interference coordinate. When the motion of the other seat is completed, the controllercontrols again the motion of the seat which stops the operation to prevent the interference situation with the other seat.

is a view for explaining a seat mounting position and size data of an actual vehicle.

Referring to, in the vehicle, a plurality of seats may be mounted. The plurality of seats includes a first seat ST, a second seat ST, and a third seat ST. More or less seats may be provided according to the vehicle specifications. The plurality of seats may be mounted in the vehicle to be slidable in the front and back direction. Backrests of the plurality of seats may be rotatably mounted on the cushions.

The first seat STis mounted in the forward direction with respect to the front and back direction of the vehicle. A length of the cushion in the front and back direction of the first seat STis approximately 610 mm. A length obtained by adding the backrest and the headrest of the first seat STin the up and down direction is approximately 880 mm. A height of the cushion of the first seat STis approximately 225 mm. A sliding length of the first seat STis approximately 198.3 mm in the forward direction. A sliding length of the first seat STis approximately 61.7 mm in the backward direction. An entire sliding length of the first seat STis approximately 260 mm in the front and back direction.

The second seat STis mounted with a distance of approximately 240 mm from the rear end of the first seat ST. The second seat SThas the almost same structure as the first seat ST, but is not limited hereto.

A sliding length of the second seat STis approximately 300 mm in the frontward direction.

The third seat STis mounted with a distance of approximately 090→900 mm from the rear end of the second seat ST. The third seat SThas the almost same structure as the first seat ST, but is not limited hereto. The third seat STis fixedly mounted in the vehicle so as not to slide, but is not limited thereto.

is a view for explaining a reference position of a slide motor based on an actual vehicle.is a view for explaining a seat rear end position of a slide motor based on an actual vehicle.is a view for explaining a seat front end position of a slide motor based on an actual vehicle.